Minority insists GHS19bn COVID cash must be probed

The Minority in Parliament has insisted there must be a probe into all COVID-19 expenditure.

It follows the viral circulation of an audiotape on social media in which a voice believed to be that of the Northern Regional Vice-Chairperson of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ms Felicia Tetteh, is heard talking about how COVID funds were disbursed to the leadership of the party and some candidates.

Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu told journalists at a press conference on Tuesday, 31 May 2022 that their persistent calls for a probe have been vindicated by the leaked audiotape.

The Tamale South MP said it “makes our call for an investigation of the highly anomalous COVID expenditures to be probed.”

He said the expenditure must be “probed by parliament or by the Auditor-General, or, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, [if he] has any respect for the tenets and values of accountability and transparency, [must] authorise a public enquiry into how the over GHS19 billion was disbursed and utilised.”

“We now understand how a motion to probe COVID by an institution, which should be the most fundamental institution and guardian of the public purse, Parliament, will dismiss the motion even at birth, by actors of the New Patriotic Party political administration.”

The motion, when it was first submitted, was rejected by First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei-Owusu.

Mr Iddrisu, however, said the minority caucus will refile the motion.

Source: Classfmonline.com